Chuj - Religion and Expressive Culture

Religious Beliefs.
A few families in San Mateo and Nentón have become Protestant.
In San Sebastián, the town is split between traditional religious
beliefs and the robust doctrinalism of Catholic Action. The
traditionalists in San Sebastián maintain the 260-day calendar
and celebrate the rituals of planting and harvest, new fire, and new
year. The Catholic Action sect refers to all these beliefs as
"lies" and to the practitioners as sorcerers.

In San Mateo, Catholicism is much more syncretic. There is a
thoroughgoing identification of Meb'a' (Orphan), a culture
hero, with Jesus. Mary is both Meb'a''s mother and
the moon. God incarnates the sun.

Most natural features—hills, rock outcrops, streams, and
caves—have spirits. The spirits in caves, who are often ancestors
of the townspeople, may be approached for aid and advice. A petitioner
brings an offering, usually candles and liquor, and writes his or her
question or request on a small piece of paper, leaving this at the cave
entrance. The following day she or he returns and picks up the written
answer.

Religious Practitioners.
There are several religious specialists. Prayer-makers can petition for
health, sobriety, good crops, and strong animals. Each town should have
a principal prayer-maker who sets the ritual calendar for the year, does
global petitioning for crops, and assigns dates for agricultural and
town maintenance tasks. There are also diviners, herbalists,
bonesetters, masseurs, midwives, curers, and sorcerers. When a sorcerer
becomes too strong or too rich, the community may decide to immolate him
or her.

Ceremonies.
The life-cycle ceremonies are: at birth, purification of mother and
child in a sauna, burial of the afterbirth, and burial of the
belly-button stub; in the first year, "leg-spreading," in
which gender roles are assigned; in the first three years,
baptism/naming, whereby children acquire godparents, and first
communion, which is seldom celebrated; at first menses, hair washing and
purification by sweat bath; boys' passage to youth, which is less
noted than that of girls; marriage; deathbed instructions; burial;
postburial purification; and death anniversaries and communion with
ancestors.

Annual-cycle ceremonies are: beating of fruit trees and children;
blessing of seed and fields; harvest; thanksgiving; warding off evil
during the five "bad" year-end days; and new fire (annual
housecleaning).

Ceremonies are held to inaugurate any structure or any major acquisition
(e.g., a truck, stereo, or raised hearth), and to open and close public
events. Each town has an annual festival for its patron saint.

Medicine.
Illness is a function of balance between the spiritual and physical
worlds. Western medicine, especially patent remedies such as aspirin,
antihistamines, and antacids, accompanied by herbal tonics, are used to
treat microbiotic disorders, allergic reactions, and indigestion. A
lesion or break will be cleaned, disinfected, set, bandaged, and later
massaged. A spiritual disorder (
susto
) may accompany an illness or result from the shock of an injury or
near-. "Fright" is cured by a ritual specialist. Envy,
anger, alcohol, holiness, and light skin, hair, or eyes make a person
"hot." When someone "hot" looks at a child
or a pregnant woman, they may cause the child to lose its soul or the
woman to become ill and possibly abort. Elders or diviners can perform
the necessary curing ritual. Illness may also be sent by ancestors or
witches and must be cured by other religious healers. Minor illnesses
are classified as "generic, nonhuman"; major diseases,
such as whooping cough, smallpox, and cancer, are classified as
"adult males."

Death and Afterlife.
Traditional Chuj belief holds that death is the transition to
"ancestorhood." Deathbed instructions are binding
obligations, and spirits enforce them with sanctions of illness and
misfortune. The spirits maintain an interest in the affairs of their
families and can be approached for advice and aid, either at family
altars, cave entrances, hilltops, or, in San Mateo, at cross-sites and
accesses to the Classic Maya structures underlying the modern city. On
All Saints' Day graves are cleaned and bedecked with flowers.
Families bring feasts to the graveyard and picnic on the graves, leaving
portions for the deceased. Marimbas play, and children fly kites. The
kites' tails often have the names of dead relatives written on
them, together with prayers or petitions.

Life after death is much like life before death. Grave goods typically
include clothes, food, dishes, and implements that served the deceased
in daily activities. One special task of the dead is to keep volcanic
necks clear of debris; many spirits from San Mateo go to work in the
Santa María volcano, overlooking Quetzaltenango. They have a
market day on Sunday, when they go to a special plaza in Quetzaltenango
and sell their wares. Living relatives may visit the dead there but may
talk to them only via interpreters. Evangelical and Catholic Action Chuj
affirm the doctrine of their faiths regarding death and the afterlife.